"You wanted to see me Ms Duquesne." One of the staff anaesthesiologist came over. "Are you in pain?"
"No the painkillers are working just fine."
"Let me check your lungs." He said pulling out his stethoscope and checking her lungs. "Okay your breathing is just fine and no problems with your lungs. Any other problems?"
"This is Timothy Speedle and Eric Delko." Calleigh introduced them.
"It's nice to meet you. So what did you need to see me about?"
"I have a question I thought you could answer for me."
"Concerning what?"
"What do you know about Chloroform?" Calleigh inquired.
"That's a peculiar question." He said.
"We all work for CSI, it's important."
"Chloroform is the common name for trichloromethane; CHCl3, it's volatile, colourless, non-flammable liquid that has a sweetish taste and a somewhat pungent odour; it boils at 61.7°C."
"What else?" Calleigh prompted.
"It was used as an anaesthetic years ago but we don't use it any more as there are safer ones."
"At what levels would it kill you?" Eric asked.
"Anything around 40,000 ppm would be enough to kill you. Anything from 1500 ppm to 30000 ppm would knock you out for some time. Anything less that 1500ppm you experience dizziness, tiredness, develop a headache."
"You get chloroform by mixing Chlorine with Ethanol." Speed said.
"That's right or by the reduction of carbon tetrachloride with moist iron."
"Hypothetically." Calleigh said. "If you put some chloroform in an enclosed environment like a car for instance would it enough to knock out anyone in that vehicle."
"Yes depending on the concentrations."
"And if you added carbon monoxide." Eric said.
"Again depending on the levels, but it would in all likelihood result in death."
"If someone was dosed with chloroform and exposed to carbon monoxide, could they wake up?"
"Possibly."
"The father was a smoker."
"Someone who is a smoker already has a low level of carbon monoxide in their blood, so if they and someone who wasn't a smoker were exposed to the same levels the smoker would generally die first."
"What are you thinking Cal?" Speed asked.
"Did you check the air conditioner?" Calleigh asked. "You said they were all dressed, very few bruises. If you knocked someone out then dressed them you'd expect bruising. I think they got dressed, got in the car, I'm guessing they had a remote for the garage door."
"Yes."
"It's been cold the last few mornings, so they switch on the heat to warm up the car. You can get little balloons that disintegrate with even the smallest amount of heat. Put one or two in the vent and instant gas chamber. It wouldn't take long to connect up the hose and with everyone knocked out no one would bother you. But mom wakes up, tries to save her family, stumbles around, so the assailant gives her more chloroform and drives her to the beach."
"It would explain a lot." Speed said.
"Or maybe he took her out of the car, made it look like she did it and tried to help, knocked a few things over on the way out and takes her to the beach. I can't tell you who…"
"But you might have just given us the how." Speed said.
"We need to go back to the lab." Eric said.
"Thank you Dr." Calleigh smiled. "You've been a great help."
"We'll come and see you tomorrow." Eric dropped a kiss on her cheek.
"Bring some chocolate." Calleigh replied.
"If this works out we'll bring you Godiva." Speed kissed.
"Thanks."
"Gentlemen." Horatio said as they were headed out the door. "Where are you going in such a hurry?"
"Back to the lab. Calleigh had an idea." Speed said.
"See you tomorrow H." Eric added.
TBC
